Jonathan Demme

Jonathan Demme- The Silence of the Lambs

Richard Demme created a classic hit in making the suspense horror The Silence of the Lambs. This movie was so exciting it left myself wanting to go rent the sequal right after finishing it. Anthony Hopkins did a Oscar deserving job playing the role of Dr. Hannibal Lector, a phsychotic cannibal out to eat people he thinks look to be tasty. He talked with the slow tone in his voice that sounded like what you would expect of an insane killer. You can tell by his pleasurable expressions that he loves getting a reaction from people as he creeps them out purpousfully. The plot and the twisted mindset of the characters is what made this movie so suspenseful. The characters leave you with suspense because you never know what they are thinking because they come off as having such abnormal minds.

Jodie Foster plays a strong woman named Clarice Starling, who works in a workforce with almost all men who come off as arrogant and sexist and seem to only think of her as pretty woman and nothing else. She works for the FBI and is put out to find a girl who has been kidnapped by a phsychotic molesting rapist similar to Hannibal Lector except he is not cannibalistic. She goes to Hannibal's prison cell in order to talk to him and try and figure out how these types of people think so she can find the kidnapper and the girl. Hannibal is compliant as long as he is able to ask her about herself. He uses her information and creeps her out by telling her much about her life which he already knows and he brings back bad memories from her childhood. She is creeped out but at the very least a person would be because of her strong mindset where she seems to be able to put stuff she doesn't want to think about in the back of her head. After a few days short talks, Hannibal agrees to give her information about where he thinks the kidnapper might be if she lets him transfer to a nicer prison cell. When he transfers, he is able to escape. I am leaving out the rest of the details and plot because I don't want to ruin the suspense for people.

The insane characters did a great job of making the viewer think about humans. The characters left me perplexed at how someone could do and enjoy the thinks they did to people. The obscurity of their actions left me wondering if there were people who actually thought like that. One might think that a movie about crazy cannibals would be too out there and fake, but as ridiculous as people who enjoy eating people for breakfast, lunch, and dinner may seem, the actors were able to give off that image in a realistic way. Hannibal Lector is a very intelligent man who graduated from college and became a therapist. He later took information from his patients and used them as prey. The best part of the movie is just the overall spooky feel the movie gives you. Anthony Hopkins deserves most of the credit. Jonathan Demme deserves some credit also for the scences he set up and the costumes and makeup which added to the spookyness.